Gingich Reveals Journey to Catholic Faith

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich laid out the reasons he converted to Catholicism in an article published Tuesday in the Catholic Register. As Gingrich continues to mull whether he’ll jump into the race for the Republican presidential nomination, he wrote the piece explaining his spiritual journey and crediting his wife, Callista, for helping him along the way.

“I am often asked when I chose to become Catholic,” Gingrich wrote. “However, it is more truthful to say that over the course of several years I gradually became Catholic and then decided one day to accept the faith I had already come to embrace.”

He said he attended mass for 15 years with Callista every Sunday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Observing the Catholic faith during trips abroad, including to St. Peter’s Basilica, moved Gingrich, he said.

“Throughout our travels, whether Callista and I were in Costa Rica or Africa, she was adamant about finding a local Mass on Sunday. Listening to “Amazing Grace” being sung in Chinese at Mass in Beijing was a beautiful experience, and worshipping with believers across the world opened my eyes to the diversity and richness of the Catholic Church.

“Over the course of a decade, the depth of faith and history contained in the life of the Catholic Church were increasingly apparent to me, and the centrality of the Eucharist in the Catholic Mass became more and more clear.”